In recent years, a wide variety of different types of organizers have been developed for carrying materials that may need to be selectively accessed for use. These organizers are exemplified by Hansen U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,626 which proposes a document holder for holding magazines, brochures and other looseleaf papers in an upright position with a relatively large portion of each document being exposed to view. Another form of organizer is exemplified by Liaw U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,850 which proposes a modular stationery stand including a rotary base and various compartments for pens and the like. Still another form of organizer is exemplified by Huang et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,696 which proposes a detachable stationery case rack positioned on a rotating base so that a number of stationery receiving cases may be flexibly arranged. And still another form of organizer is exemplified by Weisburn et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,599 which proposes a storage cabinet for recorded media that is formed of a plurality of identical modules mounted on a rotating base. These organizers are additionally exemplified by Goodyear U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,829 which proposes an office organizer for desks having multiple compartments, trays, slots and the like. While these organizers all may be meritorious in certain respects, they are also all relatively expensive to manufacture and, thus, they are entirely unsuitable for certain applications.
In particular, there are certain applications where a rotary organizer should be highly functional in use but relatively inexpensive to manufacture. This is the case, for instance, for educational kits designed to carry and support one or more relatively heavy books, as well as other materials such as art supplies, multi-media products, and the like. For an educational kit of this type, the rotary organizer must ideally be capable of supporting considerable weight, have a presentable exterior appearance, and be compartmentable and rotatable.
While the prior art suggests that there has been a rather steady development of materials organizers, there has been no organizer that has met all criteria for an educational kit or other similar applications.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the foregoing problems and achieving one or more of the resulting objects.